Let us have a look at the world so dear to our hearts — the Slavic world. Who looks forward to better times more anxiously than our nation? And who has more cause to so anticipate their arrival than we? For so many ages now, the Slavic world has been in decline, and except for the heroic liberation of the Serbian nation from beneath the atrocious Turkish yoke,1 there has been no event to gladden the yearning Slavic soul. Torn asunder and suppressed, yet offering our talents, our strength, and all other of our means in sacrifice on behalf of others, but achieving nothing for ourselves in return save oppression at home and contempt in the eyes of the wider world, our nation has lived, as the poet says, like a puddle in the darkness.2
The advent of this new age was greeted with rejoicing by
